Topic of the Month August 2018

How big data leads to diagnosis

Physicians usually diagnose like this nowadays: They examine the patient and talk to him about his problems, they compare his symptoms to disease pictures they know, and, in complex cases, they research the literature or bring in colleagues. But could it happen in the future that physicians simply collect the patient data and feed it into an algorithm that then names the most likely diagnoses? Unlikely. Read in our Topic of the Month what data-based diagnostics could look like nevertheless.

Neurology: Early detection of Parkinson’s disease with app and data?

Big Data is often likened to finding the proverbial needle in a haystack: Large volumes of data contain patterns that hold the answer to a particular question. The trick is to gather meaningful data and identify patterns. The iPROGNOSIS research project shows how smart devices and an app team up to automatically collect data without disturbing the user.